


Two Halves

by TOAOKilgrave



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dhawan Master is total chaos and I love him, Gen, He's also totally fucked up and I'm not holding back, It's a love/hate thing I'm not shipping, The Doctor and The Master are not really friends but kinda are, The Master is a little shit and The Doctor is so done with him, There are other things but I don't really know what I'm doing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-23 05:29:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23006497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TOAOKilgrave/pseuds/TOAOKilgrave
Summary: Imprisoned with seemingly no way out, The Doctor finds an unexpected saviour: The Master, but he's not done with her yet. The escape plan has a dark consequence, and the two Time Lords are chained together.So of course stupid hijinks happen and the two of them can't decide if they love or hate each other. Can they learn to work together, or will their differences bring about their downfall?“This is just like old times, Doctor. I love it!” The Master beamed, stepping straight out into danger.The Doctor sighed. “I wish I could love this.”The Master laughed a little. “The Master and The Doctor, adventuring around, stopping by, maybe ruining a few people’s days, it’s perfect!”“Shut up.”
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 62





	1. A Most Dangerous Game

“This is day five. At least, I think it’s day five. Can’t really tell when you haven’t been outside of your space prison. I don’t even know what I’m in here for. Some answers would be nice, but I haven’t even seen anyone.” The Doctor paced, her cell was completely empty except for a bed, a toilet and a barred window that showed only the blackness of space. “This would be enough to drive anyone mad. But not me.” She wasn’t sure if that was true, but at least saying it out loud made her feel more sure. At this point, she was beginning to lose hope. There did not appear to be any way out.

“So this is how it ends, is it?” The Doctor whispered more seriously. The thought of never seeing her friends again, not saying goodbye to them, stung her, and she tried desperately to avoid the thought.

The halls echoed with heavy footsteps, and she walked up to the door, peering through the bars that faced inside. At first, the dark mass was nearly unrecognisable, but as it drew closer the shape of a Judoon became clearer. The Doctor watched intently as it stopped in front of the cell door.

“What’s on the menu today? Green mush again?” She joked. It hid the pain, at least for a while.

The Judoon ignored the joke entirely. “You have a visitor.”

“Ooooh, a visitor! I like visitors. Who is it?” As she spoke, the Judoon handcuffed her and pushed her out of the cell. Before The Doctor could react, it grabbed her by the arm and dragged her down the hall, nearly knocking her off her feet.  
“Alright, you don’t need to be so rough about it!” The Doctor complained. “Who would visit me anyway? How does anyone know where I am?”

Soon they entered the visiting room, a dark room separated into booths. She was forced roughly into one of them and onto a seat. There was a table and on the other side of it was the same layout. She reached her arm across the table and when she got halfway, an invisible wall gave an electric shock. She cried in pain, and wondered where her mysterious visitor might be. How happy she’d be to see Ryan, Yaz and Graham right now, but doubted the possibility. Maybe even Jack, he’s out there somewhere, that could work. Her mind was racing, anyone would be of use, surely.

“Hello Doctor.”

Well, anyone but him. Beaming at her was The Master, exactly as he had been five days ago. It couldn’t be. She could only look at him in terror.

“Doctor, please don’t look at me like that. It’s like you’re not happy to see me.”

“How did you survive the death particle?” The Doctor stared, doing her best to hide all emotion.

The Master laughed and smacked the table playfully. “Come on, Doctor. You should know by now I don’t like to tell you things unless it’s beneficial for me, or it hurts you. But I let you have the death particle, I knew you’d use it, of course I’d have a contingency.”

For a moment The Doctor said nothing, and looked away, trying to take everything in. “What do you want?”

He leaned in as if to share a secret. “Do you know what this place is, Doctor?”

“Haven’t been outside of my cell until now, so no, no clue.” She said sarcastically.

“This place goes by many names, but my personal favourite is The Asteroid. It’s got a nice ring to it. It is the top maximum security on this side of the universe. Nobody has ever escaped it.” The Master’s hand drifted on the table, and The Doctor saw it pass through where the invisible wall would’ve been.

“First time for everything.” The Doctor smiled confidently.

The Master scoffed at that remark. “A lot of the worst criminals you’ll ever find are held here. I’ll admit, I may have nearly brushed with this place once or twice but I’ve found regeneration to be convenient in evading prison time. I suppose I have you to thank for that now, Doctor.” There was deep contempt as he spat her name.

“Do you know why I’m here?” Hatred aside, she needed answers. It was worth a go.

He scoffed. “Bold of you to assume that I know why. And yes, I do. I put you here.”

The Doctor paused with disbelief. “No.”

“Yes!” The Master laughed gleefully. “You destroyed all organic life on a planet! Whether anyone on that planet is alive or not you can’t just go around annihilating planets with no consequence. So I reported you, and now you’re here. You’re welcome.”

The Doctor leaned in with a newfound seriousness. “I will escape this place.”

“Attempt to escape, break a few rules, or even sometimes if you’ve done nothing at all, they have a device called The Unbreakable Chain, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: handcuffs that can never be broken. They pop it on you, and now you are connected to whatever they chain it up to, usually the walls, by your very life force. It’s why nobody has ever escaped this prison. Since I first heard whispers of it, I’ve been fascinated by it.” His smile reflected this.

“Why are you telling me all this? You know you’re not hurting me, right?” The Doctor lied. This hurt, a lot, but she was not going to let him win.

“Not even a little?” He shrugged. “I suppose this is beneficial to me, though. We have different goals, but it’s tied to this one place. You want to escape, and I want to, how do I put this best?” The Master paused in thought. “Remove the possibility of me getting here in the future. Not even I can hide forever.”

“What makes you think that I’d work with you?” The Doctor replied in disgust.

“Nothing. I wasn’t expecting you to say yes. Which is why…” As The Master trailed off, in what seemed to be a split second, he reached his hand through the invisible wall and jammed something into The Doctor’s right arm before she could react.

“I managed to get a hold of this prison’s secret weapon. Figured I’d give you an advance warning.”

The Doctor recoiled in pain, clutching her arm. “What have you done?” She cried.

“I just gave you one half of The Unbreakable Chain. A chip like this,” he held up his hand to reveal a small chip with an orange glow, “has just burrowed its way into your arm and now waits for this partner chip here to go somewhere.” He laughed hysterically, to The Doctor’s horror. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

Without hesitation, The Master slammed the chip into his right arm in the same way, laughing harder than ever. The whole time, he looked straight into The Doctor’s eyes. This was probably his new revenge. He never seemed to run out of ways to make her suffer.

“The chain doesn’t extend any further than about four metres, give or take. So as soon as either of us makes a move, it’s us versus the most secure prison in the universe.” The Master stood up with a huge smile on his face. “Don’t you love a high-stakes game? I do!”

A glowing orange line appeared between the two: the chain. The Doctor shook her arm, but the chain followed. It appeared to be truly unbreakable.

The Master looked so proud of himself. “What do you think? Say something.” The Doctor said nothing, focused more on the chain extending out of her wrists. There had to be a way to remove it, surely? The Master sighed. “Come on Doctor, you know I don’t like it when I don’t get a response. Say something!” He shouted, and the Judoon, previously at the door of the waiting room, started to stir at the noise.

“I think you’re insane.” The Doctor said in a stressed panic.

“Yes!” The Master cried, and jumped up onto the table. The Doctor jumped in terror as he did this. “Thank you. Now, let’s get to it.” Immediately, he stepped through the invisible wall and stood triumphantly above The Doctor. He started to celebrate with a look of pure, maniacal joy but was interrupted by the heavy footsteps of the approaching Judoon.

All of his happiness immediately left his face. “Oh yeah, them.” As it came closer, he jumped off the table, held his arm down and a metal object slipped out of his coat. With a terrifying efficiency, he grabbed the object and held it out at the Judoon, shooting out a red beam that lit it up and disintegrated the alien in a burning ball. It screamed in pain as it was reduced to nothing, and that whole time, The Master just laughed.

“Got some new toys, or rather, upgraded ones. Found some interesting tech the last few days, I have a laser screwdriver that actually shoots lasers.” He said this with a childish passion.

“Lost the shrink machine, did you?” The Doctor joked. It helped with difficult situations like this.

“No, I still have it. I was just in the mood for destroying every cell of that creature. I think it’s rather funny when they scream. They scream like it means something. It doesn’t. It never will.” There was a seriousness in that voice that he lacked before. He meant it.

The Doctor let out a quiet gasp, disgusted by what she heard. “Why?”

A smile returned to The Master. “Because it’s fun, isn’t it?”

“No.” The Doctor cried softly. “What happened to you?”

“That’s a stupid question and you know it. But there’s no time for that, we’ve got to get out of this room before they catch on.”

He was insane, clearly. Beyond all reason at this point. There had to be some way to break the chain, but The Doctor wondered if it was perhaps best to stick with him, just to get out of here. She just wanted to see her friends again, and would put up with anything for that, even the sadist Time Lord who wants to vaporise everything. She wasn’t going to enjoy it, though.  
He walked towards the door and the chain pulled on The Doctor, knocking her towards him. The Master didn’t seem to care about this, and opened the door, dragging The Doctor out into the hallway.

“This is just like old times, Doctor. I love it!” The Master beamed, stepping straight out into danger.

The Doctor sighed. “I wish I could love this.”

The Master laughed a little. “The Master and The Doctor, adventuring around, stopping by, maybe ruining a few people’s days, it’s perfect!”

“Shut up.”

To The Doctor, this might have been worse than being trapped alone in an inescapable space prison for life. But she held out hope, that somehow, this might all work out, one way or another.


	2. The Thrill of the Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The prison escape hits its first hitch, and then its second, and its third... but don't think that's going to stop these two. This chapter is wack tbh.

“So we’re going to need to head into the main control room at the center of this place. Probably going to need your sonic for that one.” The Master whispered. Everything had gone according to plan, but he couldn’t help but wonder if this might not work out. It was about as well thought out as it could’ve been, but the situation wasn’t ideal at all. And either way, as much as he hated to admit it, he did need help.

“I don’t have it.” The Doctor whispered back.

“What?”

“They took it off me when I got here.” She said defensively.

“Are you telling me they didn’t take your clothes, but they took everything out of your pockets?” The Master looked skeptical.

“I know, right? It’s a fate worse than death, having empty pockets.” The Doctor put her hands into her pockets and pulled them back out again, almost as if she hoped they would become full. “I hate empty pockets!”

He sighed. “We could make a detour then, although it is likely that they’ve destroyed it, unless it’s made of anything valuable.”

“It’s made of spoons from Sheffield.” The Doctor claimed with pride.

The Master scoffed. “Yeah, it’s probably destroyed then.”

“Oh no!” She moaned. “Can we check anyway?”

“There’s no time, and the room where they apparently keep the confiscated items is in the other direction.”

“Nope,” The Doctor said defiantly, “we’re going to get it.”

“Doctor, we can’t waste time.” The Master replied aggressively.

“They haven’t noticed us yet.”

“They will probably notice us around…” Suddenly, the sound of sirens aggressively echoed around the hallways. “Now.”

“Run!” The Doctor shouted, as the pounding footsteps of the Judoon began to rise in volume, dragging The Master in the direction of the sonic screwdriver. He yelped as he was yanked by the chain. He had prepared to be caught but not to start running, because he didn’t like to entertain that thought.

The corridors of the Asteroid were like a labyrinth of darkness, illuminated by faint blue lights that barely indicated distance or direction. It was difficult to tell just how far they were running, even to The Master, who had prepared for this moment thoroughly.

“Where am I going?” The Doctor shouted, looking back to see a line of Judoon advancing towards them.

“Left!” The Master could barely keep his balance, as The Doctor’s running was far too sudden and quick for him.

“Where now?” The sirens intensified. They were becoming deafening, but still kept their constant beat.

“Right!”

The Doctor skidded as she turned suddenly, rushing down the hallway. The Master was even slower on his feet, nearly colliding into a wall as he started to be entirely controlled by the chain.

“It’s the next door on the left!”

They rushed up to a large door that was left partially open, and the two of them squeezed through, closing it with a bang behind them. There was now Judoon approaching from both sides, the steady beat of their heavy steps bounced around the walls. 

The room appeared to be nothing more than a random clutter of strange objects, all in an unorganised pile.

“I do love a good pile of junk!” The Doctor said optimistically, rushing towards the pile and searching through it frantically.

The Master sighed as he was pulled across the room by the chain, and when The Doctor stopped, he pulled the laser screwdriver out once again, pointing it at a control panel that exploded in flames. “I told you, I’m a terrible runner.” He reminded her, stopping briefly to catch his breath. “You’re lucky I committed the structure of this place to memory, just in case.”

“Are you expecting me to thank you?” The Doctor didn’t look back as she started throwing random metal objects out of the pile.

“No, although that would be nice.” The Master chuckled to himself. “I’m expecting you to hurry up. We’ve got to get past them.”

“Aha! I’ve got it!” The Doctor stood up, holding her sonic screwdriver in the air with a huge smile. “So, have you got a plan?”

“Surrender now, prisoner, or you will be executed!” The booming voice of a Judoon called out through the door.

The Master began to pace. “There’s about 20 Judoon on the other side of this door waiting to, at best, kill both of us. Yes, I’m coming up with a plan.”

“Of course you are. The door controls are burnt out. Great plan there.” The Doctor replied sarcastically.

“How else was I going to stop them getting in?” The Master defended frantically. The sirens, the presence behind the door, the trapped feeling and the two heartbeats pounding at breakneck pace; the stress was almost, but not quite, getting to him.

A panic started to come over The Doctor. “How are we going to get out?”

“Burn through the door?” The Master suggested. He always thought that the best way to escape any room was through property damage.

“And let the angry space rhinos in? Wait…” She put her hands to her head as she tried to think. “Yes!” The Doctor smiled pointed towards where they came from. “Melt that door!”

He smiled, but still doubted such an idea. “Really?”

“Yes!” The Doctor insisted. “Do it!”

The Master shrugged. “Alright.” He nonchalantly pointed the laser screwdriver at the center of the door, and it began to melt outwards. As the hole grew larger, the Judoon could be seen through it, preparing to burst in when they had the space.

The Doctor stepped forward so that the two of them were side by side, facing the enemy down. “I won’t have much time. Run when I tell you to.” She said, still looking ahead.

“It’s not like I have a choice, is it?” The Master joked as he turned to her.

“Nope!” The Doctor smiled a little bit, and held her sonic screwdriver up in the air. The lights began to flicker before the sirens were silenced and the room became engulfed in darkness. “Run!” 

The only sounds left were the burning of the door and the quick footsteps of The Doctor and The Master as they rushed out of the room, bumping into the Judoon outside yet somehow slipped past them. They were probably too confused to even react in time. As they emerged from the crowd, the power returned and the sirens rang again almost suddenly.

Barely manoeuvring himself to avoid one last Judoon, The Master quickly put a hand inside his coat, and pulled out his tissue compression eliminator, and aimed it at one of the Judoon, shrinking it.

“Yes!” The Master laughed and lunged for the shrunken alien, dragging The Doctor backwards.

“What are you doing?” She shouted, looking back to see the Judoon turning towards them.

“I couldn’t help myself!” He scrambled to get back up, shoving the device and the tiny Judoon into his pocket.

“Come on!” The Doctor cried, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him with her as she ran.

She grabbed him. The Master was honoured, well, not really, but it signalled a reliance. She was relying on him. It was about damn time. Finally, the sounds and the lights weren’t stressing to him anymore. They felt just right. This was his element, and he was going to show that Doctor who was boss. A newfound energy inspired him to run faster, pulling The Doctor from one direction to another.

Although the rush made it hard to tell how long they had been going, it must have certainly been a longer distance than before, and by the time the two of them entered the control room, opened with the help of the sonic, they were both slightly out of breath. There were multiple rows of computers, and at the far end, one giant screen: the main control. The room was full of Judoon, perhaps 20? Those that worked there appeared to be gone, replaced by them.

“Oh. Hello.” The Doctor smiled, trying to come up with a quick plan. She glanced over to see if The Master was thinking too, but he just beamed, slowly pulling the laser screwdriver out and spinning in around in his hand.

“Let’s dance.”

The Master ran up and jumped on a desk, and the Judoon opened fire. The Doctor, dragged along, desperately tried not to go flying into it. Thinking on her feet, she pointed her sonic back at the control panel and locked it again. Her next instinct was to duck under the desk as she was about to collide with it, and she was surprised when the chain passed through the desk instead of being stopped by it.

“Pew!” He shouted gleefully as he fired a blast, hitting a Judoon straight in the chest. Laughing, he weaved around the energy shots, all while firing back with perfect accuracy, each one in time with another “pew!” He advanced down the room, sometimes kicking the computers away as he progressed.

The Doctor, meanwhile, cried in slight pain as she was dragged on her back, bashing into the legs of the desks. Had it not been for the commotion above, the noise would’ve been easily noticed.

As the number of Judoon fell, the fight, for The Master, became less about survival and more about style. He spun around, laughing harder with each step closer, not seeming to have a care in the world. Soon, only one Judoon remained. It had stopped shooting.

“Shoot me.” He said calmly. “Go on.”

There was no response.

“Do it.” He insisted.

Still no response.

“Do it!” The Master screamed, and almost instantly, it shot first, and he quickly jumped off the table, landing with one final laser blast to end it. The Judoon screamed as it burned into nothing more than a pile of ash.

As The Doctor climbed out from under the table, The Master approached the ash, and squatted down to get a better look at it.

“Beautiful.” He said softly, running it through his fingers. The Doctor simply stared at the computer. You could always feel it in the room when she was angry, and that presence was there. The Master relished that, smiling to himself with the realisation that finally, truly, he was making The Doctor suffer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe the chapter name has the chase in it and yet didn't include Graham, I'm so disappointed in myself. I'll get to him soon, I like him too much not to.
> 
> Anyway, I was totally blown away by the response to the first chapter, I just want to say thanks to everyone who read it! It really gave me the motivation to sit down and work on this chapter today despite having some more important things I should've been doing instead lol. I don't like publishing my chapters until I've started work on the next so I didn't write this whole bit in less than a day, but I wrote more than I usually would, and I have you all to thank for that.
> 
> I also can't stress enough how good of a time I'm having actually writing this, working with The Master's pure chaos is so much fun and the possibilities are perhaps nearly endless, I really like that (now that he's made pew pew noises while killing I think I might have already hit peak chaos and I love that too much). For once I actually have a plan as to where I'm going with this, so I can promise more fun and wacky madness in the future! Enjoy :)


	3. Breaking Point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After two chapters of action, we'll slow down for a bit as The Doctor and The Master finally make their escape from prison.

There was a dead silence in the room, for neither The Doctor or The Master needed to ask how the other felt to know what was on their minds. The Doctor started looking at the main control, which had remained untouched by the chaos, while The Master, further down the room, tugged on the chain slightly, caught up in his own devices. She dreaded asking what it was that he was doing.

“What was all that about earlier? Grabbing me?” There was almost a playful tone to The Master’s questioning.

“What?” The Doctor asked, as the memory came back to her. “You were slowing me down. It didn’t mean anything.” The two of them didn’t look away from what they were doing.

“Are you sure that was the reason, Doctor?” The Master teased.

Now was really not the right time. “It was. Shut up!” The Doctor snapped.

This was exactly The Master’s way of torture. It was small and petty. Only he could enjoy this. The Doctor despised it.

He laughed. “Someone’s angry.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” The Doctor was solemn, scanning her sonic at the computer. “You didn’t have to kill all of them.”

“But what would have you done instead? Don’t tell me I’m wrong if you couldn’t have done it better.”

The Doctor knew that there was a better way. There always was, but The Master was beyond reason like this. She wondered if it was even worth staying angry, for there was a task at hand, and she needed to get to it. Finally, she took a deep breath and asked the question she feared. “What are you doing?”

The Master turned around with a smile. “Planting this bomb.”

“What?” The Doctor stopped what she was doing and ran over to him. “Don’t do that!”

“Why not?” The Master smiled with not a hint of concern.

“You can’t blow up the prison! The Doctor cried desperately. “There are innocent lives here!”

“If they’re in prison I hardly doubt they’re innocent.” A serious look suddenly came over him. “Do remember why I’m even here, Doctor? I want to get rid of this place. So I’m going to blow it up, and you’re not going to stop me!” He replied angrily, turned back to the bomb and started setting a timer.

“Please. Don’t.” The Doctor grabbed him as she pleaded.

He smiled to himself upon contact and turned back. “Why?”

“We can leave without hurting anyone else. This isn’t the right thing to do.” The Doctor looked genuinely concerned. It may sound stupid to The Master but she had no doubt it was right. Although she kept telling herself and he was beyond all reason, there was some faint and familiar hope that maybe, she could make him understand.

The Master wheezed. It wasn’t a kind of laugh The Doctor had heard come out of him before. “I don’t care!” He exclaimed proudly, and pushed a button, starting the countdown. Two minutes. He headed back to the main control, leaving The Doctor with the bomb. She held up the sonic screwdriver, preparing to put it to use again.

“It’s deadlock sealed, Doctor!” He teased with contempt. “Don’t waste your time.”

Reluctantly, The Doctor instead pointed the sonic at the main control, and a wall began to open up, revealing a rounded escape pod. Without a word, she ran up the pod, opening the door and leaving it open for The Master to follow.

Inside, there was a whole set of buttons and switches. Just the way The Doctor liked it. This wasn’t just an escape pod, it was a proper ship. She heard the door click shut behind her, and responded by flicking some of the switches which made the ship hum with life.

As the ship got ready to launch, there was a bittersweet feeling for The Doctor. There would be freedom, and she’d see her friends again, but what about the price she had to pay to get here? She wondered if The Unbreakable Chain truly lived up to its name. There had to be a way out of this, surely? She had escaped prison but had not escaped confinement.

The ship shot out of the side of the prison, and straight into the empty space. The Master was preoccupied with a window of the ship, looking back at the Asteroid.

“Any moment now, the whole thing will blow.” He commented joyfully. “I really want to see it.” 

The Doctor, unsure even of what direction it was to Earth, decided to let him have this moment. She felt like she was giving him too much freedom, perhaps. But she didn’t dare look back, not wanting to see destruction that if anything, was her fault. The shame was too much.

If The Doctor had looked back, she would’ve seen how the prison exploded, as the entire place collapsed in on itself, before launching everything away in a mighty wave. Debris, bodies, everything. The Master didn’t say anything, for once, but looked in awe at the damage. She sensed that for him, it was a moment you respected, not ruined.

“I’ll take control now.” The Master’s voice made The Doctor jump. She gazed at him with a sense of loathing. Fat chance he was taking control here. He sighed. “Don’t look at me like that. I followed you to Earth, I was hoping to catch you out there, but then you got arrested. So we have the same destination, and unlike you, I actually know where we are.”

The Doctor, remembering what had happened to get her here, asked angrily. “And what about the CyberMasters? Where are they?”

He chuckled. “Why would I tell you that? I’ll bring them back when it’s called for, be grateful it’s not now.” He leaned forward next to her and watched the ship zoom past the stars. “I like seeing the universe as I travel. That’s the bad thing about a TARDIS, I suppose. You never get to see the journey. Do you ever miss that?” For the first time, there was a true calmness to The Master, something The Doctor hadn't seen this time before. She was still trying to understand who exactly he was this time, wondering where everything went wrong.

“I guess I’ve gotten used to not seeing it.” A genuine question deserved a genuine answer.

“I think I did too.” It didn’t last long though, quickly, a smile came over him again. “Oh, I nearly forgot about this. Isn’t it cute?” The Master pulled the tiny Judoon out of his coat pocket. “I’ve decided I want a little collection of tiny things, sort of reminders of who I’ve been killing.” He explained with enthusiasm. “It’s a shame I left that Cyberman behind for you, it was one of a kind. You know what would be really nice to have though? A tiny Dalek. Those things were made to be compressed.” He held the tiny Judoon up to his face, rubbing his finger over the points with a child-like curiosity, but quickly pulled himself together. 

The Doctor, now feeling somewhat tired, took a risk, she wasn’t sure if it was because she wasn’t thinking straight or maybe some dumber reason. She backed away from the controls, sitting on the floor on the ship, leaning her head back on the wall and stretching her legs straight.

“Time ladies and gentlemen, our flight will be arriving at Sheffield on the planet Earth in approximately three hours. You can find the exits nowhere because exposure to deep space will surely mean your death. We hope you enjoy your flight.” The Doctor couldn’t help but stare at The Master. The way he operated the controls gave a sense of casual intelligence, it reminded The Doctor of herself. How he switched seamlessly from sane to insane, she couldn’t understand it. What was he now? Where was the old Master, who had been just about to stop the needless destruction and death? The Doctor couldn’t help but wonder if it was her fault. It probably was, and even in the now, the contempt, the hatred, it was because of her, and what she was. She was more now, and he was less. At least, that’s not what she thought, but he’d always see it that way.

The thoughts were overwhelming. She might have embraced all of her part as the Timeless Child, but the pain it caused him, it was part of the problem. Maybe she hated it, really. Or that was what he wanted her to think. Mind games, again. Perhaps she should stop embracing that. Or maybe she just needed to see her friends again. Anything to make her feel better. Eventually, all she could think about was her need to sleep, and staring into the dark, it became one with her dreams.

***

The Doctor was woken up by a sudden jerk forward. She looked up to see The Master outside of the ship. It seemed like he was going to leave without her.

The Master scoffed, looking back. “I almost forgot you were here.”

“Are we in Sheffield?” The Doctor slowly picked herself up.

“Yeah.”

Stepping outside into a field of long grass, she looked towards the horizon to see the familiar buildings of Sheffield. It was a welcoming sight, even if they were further away than she would’ve liked. There was barely a cloud in the sky, and the sun, for once in this place, gave off a real summer warmth. It wasn’t half bad weather for a walk.

The Doctor led the way, and the two of them walked in silence towards the city. The most direct path was through a small wood, and there was a relaxing calmness to the place as she progressed. Although The Doctor was in a rush, she still desired to take the place in, and slowed down for a short while. It almost made her forget about everything. She hoped, at least, it would be easier to do so with her friends.

“I’m so looking forward to this.” She guessed that The Master had waited for her to be lost in thought before he started speaking. He sounded genuinely excited.

“To what?” The Doctor asked grumpily.

“Meeting your ‘friends’ again.” He said “friends” with a lack of understanding. Of course he didn’t know what that was like. “Imagine the look on their faces when they see me here.”

The Doctor did imagine, and she dreaded the explaining she’d have to do. He was a danger to them, and they knew it.

The Master laughed, rushing a tiny bit to catch up to The Doctor until they were side by side. “They will hate me.”

At least he was right. “Yes, they will.”

“That makes it more fun!” He turned to her, showing a huge smile. His eyes seemed to sparkle too: a true sign that nothing excited him more than ruining everything for her.

To each his own. The Doctor hoped that her friends would understand, but didn’t doubt that they would. She just wished some way out of this would miraculously appear before she got to them.  
Soon, the forest ended and they emerged much closer to the city, but separated by a motorway, like a river, instead full of speeding cars. The two of them watched for a moment as they zoomed by, waiting for an opportune time.

The Doctor was the first to move. Stepping out onto the road hardly felt like a leap of faith but the danger was still present, even if the road was clear for a brief moment. The Master waited a little longer, long enough for a car to approach at a high speed. He considered messing about in that moment, and went for it, pulling out the tissue compression eliminator once again and catching the car in it as it approached him. He smiled and laughed a little to himself as he finally crossed the first half of the road, bending down to pick up the now tiny car on the way.

The Doctor, stood in the middle of the road, only sighed. Telling him to stop was like talking to a brick wall at this point. If only he would listen. If only, perhaps, she could be more persuasive.

The rest of the journey was quiet, a silence that each of them dared not disturb. The gravity of the situation had settled, and now, it was time to face the consequences. The Doctor certainly thought this as she stood on a street in Sheffield, ready to finally see the friends she had missed so dearly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get this chapter out faster but work really caught up to me the last few days, so some less fun things had to take priority. I've decided it would not be unreasonable to say that I'll release 2/3 chapters a week as it stands, but don't treat it as a promise, I'm doing my best with what I've got.  
> This chapter was slower than the last two, I like writing long thoughts, so I hope you like reading them lmao. I also want to say that I actually have a plan for the next few chapters, which is rare for me, and I promise that this story will take some unexpected turns. I just hope you enjoy the ride. ;)

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time since I last wrote so you gotta bear with me here, but despite having a love/hate relationship of epic proportions with this show I was more inspired than I ever have been to write this because I've developed a newfound love for The Master, that crazy son of a bitch. I'm having a hell of a time writing this though and hopefully I have the commitment to go as far as I can with this. I hope anyone reading this enjoys this as much as I am. ;)


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